dark horse

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Someone who possesses talents or favorable characteristics that are not known or expected…

   Someone who possesses talents or favorable characteristics that are not known or expected by others.

   • ‘She’s a dark horse,’ he said. ‘She knows just as much about climbing mountains as you or I. In fact, she was ahead of me the whole time, and I lost her.’
   • As she pulled the door closed behind her, she heard the nurse say, “Well! You’re a dark horse, I must say! Do you know that extraordinary-looking girl?”
   • “Well!” Genevieve laughs – the kind of bright, trilling laugh you give when you’re really quite annoyed about something. “Ed, you are a dark horse! I had no idea you had a girlfriend!”
2. 2

   A candidate for an election who is nominated unexpectedly, without previously having been…

   A candidate for an election who is nominated unexpectedly, without previously having been discussed or considered as a likely choice.

   • That left Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69 — a quiet American dark horse who had, surprisingly, emerged in the evening’s vote — as a source of particular interest.
3. 3

   A horse whose capabilities are not known.

4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

      Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dark, horse.

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